Athletic Bilbao vs Slavia Prague

Estadio San Mames forms the backdrop for the first-ever UEFA Europa League meeting between Athletic Bilbao and Slavia Prague.

After hauling back a halftime deficit to hold Roma to a 1-1 away draw in the opening Europa League round, Athletic Bilbao netted two unanswered second-half goals in a 2-0 home triumph against AZ Alkmaar last time out, bolstering their hopes of reaching the knockout stages. Brimming with confidence following a scintillating 4-1 romping of Espanyol at the weekend, the high-flying La Liga giants head into proceedings having only lost once in their last eight competitive matches (W5, D2). However, the Basque team’s disappointing overall record against Czech opposition could potentially spell trouble (D2, L2) despite Ernesto Valverde’s side failing to score only once in their last 21 Europa League home outings since 2012 (W14, D2, L5).

In the meantime, Slavia Prague got their second successive Europa League campaign off to a flyer, beating Bulgarian side Ludogorets 2-0 on matchday one before holding Ajax to a 1-1 home draw last time out. On top of that, the visitors have been nearly flawless in their domestic league campaign thus far (W10, D1), including a 2-1 away win against Jablonec at the weekend. However, they can’t afford to get complacent after failing to keep a clean sheet in three consecutive matches across all competitions. Furthermore, they’ve only registered two victories across their last 14 encounters against Spanish opponents (W2, D6, L6), casting doubt on their bid to post their first-ever win on this soil (D5, L2).